Research on having one point of contact during the perinatal period
The challenge: Sometimes perinatal care has to be delivered by several different members of staff in hospital, especially with pressures on the National Health Service. Evidence suggests having just one point of contact during this time might help parents navigate birth better and result in better birth outcomes, but we do not know if this is feasible for midwives, or if it will help parents in Bradford.
What we’re doing about it
The Continuity of Carer Midwifery intervention aims to provide pregnant women with continuous care using the same midwife throughout their antenatal, birth and postnatal care. It is currently being run in Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
We have been running an evaluation of the Continuity of Carer Midwifery intervention whilst it runs in Bradford. This evaluation will help us understand whether having one point of care is feasible and whether it helps improve birth and mental health outcomes.
Findings
In Phases 1 and 2, our team evaluated the care that midwives were providing, and both phases showed evidence of promise:
- In Phases 1 and 2, the majority of women were found to receive high levels of continuity of care across the antenatal (before birth) and postnatal (after birth) periods.
- Both women and midwives were found to have high levels of satisfaction for the model.
Future plans
Phase 3 is currently being evaluated, and it aims to improve the levels of continuity of care that are provided for women during their labour (when they are giving birth). We will be using measures of mothers mental health to look at how the service is working.
Project summary written by Rachael Moss
the Better Start Bradford Innovation Hub 
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